Департамент энергетики разрешил двум своим секретным лабораториям приостановить проверку ученых из Китая и России, которые посещают эти лаборатории якобы с целью шпионажа.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After President Clinton took office, the Energy Department allowed two of its most sensitive nuclear weapons labs to halt background checks on foreign guests to cope with soaring numbers of visiting Chinese and Russian scientists. Officials now concede the move was a security blunder. While direct evidence has not emerged of espionage by the visitors, congressional investigators found at least 13 scientists with suspected foreign intelligence ties were allowed into the labs without proper CIA or FBI scrutiny. Five of those scientists were allowed into the Sandia lab at Albuquerque, N.M., while eight visited the Los Alamos lab, also in New Mexico, that U.S. officials believe has been a target of Chinese espionage for more than 20 years, congressional investigators said. Security checks, mandatory before 1994, were reinstated last November amid growing Clinton administration worries about Chinese espionage at the government's premier weapons labs. While U.S. officials have no evidence that nuclear secrets were lost to any of the 4,409 Russian and Chinese visitors between 1994 and late 1998, when background checks were reinstated, they have no guarantee information did not escape."As far as I am concerned, the exemptions (for background checks) should never have been given," said Ed Curran, a veteran FBI official who last year took over counterintelligence at the Energy Department. "You have to have the information to make a decision (on access). The lab director has to know who is on his site," Curran said in an interview with The Associated Press. The administration made it a priority after the Cold War to open up the once highly secretive weapons labs and expand their nondefense research programs. The surge in Russian visitors stemmed from an urgent need to help improve Russia's safeguards on nuclear material to keep it from terrorists or antagonistic states. The increase in Chinese visitors was attributed largely to the labs pushing to expand nonweapons research and broaden links to scientists not only in the United States but abroad. According to government officials and documents, the request to end security checks originated in the fall of 1993 from the labs, which at the time were inundated with visitors. In 1994, the number of Chinese visitors to the Los Alamos and Sandia labs more than doubled, from 146 to 329, according to Energy Department figures. The number of Russian visitors rose from 201 to 364. "The number of foreign visitors was increasing, and in some cases it was taking months for the checks to get done," Energy official Joan Rohlfing said. "It was such an inefficient system that it simply was not enabling any of the programs to move forward." Energy officials agreed to the labs' request to end the background checks. Rohlfing said the exemption was supposed to be "only for visitors who were going to unclassified areas of the laboratory." The General Accounting Office, the investigatory arm of Congress, first found problems with the termination of background checks in a 1997 report. The GAO documented "13 instances where persons with suspected foreign intelligence connections were allowed access without background checks - eight visitors went to Los Alamos and five went to Sandia. "Available records also indicated that eight other persons with suspected connections to foreign intelligence services were approved for access to Sandia during the period; however, DOE and Sandia lacked adequate records to confirm whether the persons actually accessed the facility," the GAO added. GAO auditor Victor Rezendes said suspending background checks only invited trouble. "The safeguards you put on windows and doors may not stop a burglar, but you don't want to sleep with your door open," he said. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson reinstated the background checks in November as a congressional committee was finishing an investigation into reports of Chinese theft of U.S. technology, including alleged espionage at the weapons labs. In March, a longtime Los Alamos scientist, Wen Ho Lee, was fired and remains under suspicion of providing secrets to China. The FBI is investigating, but Lee denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged. The GAO repeatedly decried potential losses, even though visitors, with rare exception, are not allowed into the most secure sections of the research labs and are supposed to be monitored closely. GAO investigators in 1997 found classified or sensitive material in areas frequented by visitors. In one example, six boxes, marked "sensitive material" in red letters, were found in the hallway of a lab where foreign visitors walked. Classified information also was found in a newsletter available to visitors. Adding to the problem was little spending for counterintelligence. In 1996, according to GAO, Los Alamos spent $100,000, or $111 per Russian or Chinese visitor, to monitor possible espionage. That was less than one-fifth the amount spent by another lab, Lawrence Livermore, which had about half as many visitors. Asked recently whether foreign visitors posed a threat, John Browne, director of the Los Alamos lab, replied, "Yes, a potential threat. The potential is there." Still, he defended the visitor program, saying it is important to interact with international scientists. While reversing the decision on background checks, Richardson also has been an advocate of the program. "We've got to be careful that we don't penalize the foreign visitors program that so far has not been the source of the problem," Richardson said. "If we cut our foreign visitor program, it will hurt our national security."

Адъюнкт-профессор Университета Цинциннати Петер Смирниотис намеревается приехать в Новосибирск для проведения совместных работ с Институтом Катализа по новой программе "Наука для мира". Американские и сибирские ученые будут создавать и испытывать новые цеолитовые катализаторы, с помощью которых можно дезактивировать химическое оружие без загрязнения окружающей среды. На проведение этих работ НАТО предоставило грант в размере 270 тысяч долларов, рассчитанный на три года.

CINCINNATI -- Chemical engineering associate professor Peter Smirniotis will be heading to Siberia later this year to team up with Russian scientists trying to find a safer way to degrade toxic chemical weapons. The international collaboration just received a $270,000, three-year grant to support the research through NATO's new Science for Peace Programme. Smirniotis was one of only three U.S. researchers funded under the program. It was designed to bring scientists and engineers from NATO countires together with researchers in countries like Russia which need help on industrial, environmental, or security-related problems. "This will have tremendous benefit from an environmental point of view, because it will minimize the release of toxic species to the environment," said Smirniotis. The UC team will work with Professor Eugenii Savinov and others at the Boreskov Institute in Siberia. Over the next three years, they will develop and test zeolite catalysts for their potential in degrading compounds which resemble chemical warfare agents. Smirniotis has already developed several novel zeolite catalysts for the petroleum industry and environmental applications, earning a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award along the way. Smirniotis emphasized that the researchers on the NATO project will not be working with actual chemical weapons. Instead, they will use "simulants," chemical compounds which react in a similar manner but are not as dangerous as the actual chemical weapons. According to previous reports, it is estimated that the U.S. has 25,000 tons of chemical warfare agents, and Russia has about 40,000 tons. If the project is successful, Smirniotis said it will go a long way toward helping demilitarize the U.S. and Russia. However, his greatest hope is seeing the technology used worldwide. "If Saddam and Iraq want to use this, go ahead," said Smirniotis. The next steps for Smirniotis will be to visit his collaborators in Russia and develop a research plan to be presented at NATO headquarters in Brussels this fall. Once approved, the actual research is expected to begin early in the year 2000. NATO also hopes the research will lead to a marketable product which can help Russia boost its economy in an environmentally sound manner.

Rhombic Corporation применила разработанный учеными России, Германии и США способ производства высокоэффективного дисперсного депозитного вещества - порошковой плазмы, которая состоит из однородного внутреннего слоя, покрытого тонкой, но прочной оболочкой. Данное вещество можно использовать в качестве катализатора, шлифовального материала или промежуточного материала при сварке и пайке различных керамических и других неметаллических материалов с металлами, например, припоев для соединения высокотемпературных полупроводников и электрических проводов.

VANCOUVER, BC May 26, 1999 -- Rhombic Corporation (OTC BB:NUKE) has acquired from Russian, German, and American scientists a method of manufacturing a high efficient disperse deposit material (DCM) or dust plasma, that is made up of a homogeneous interior covered with a thin and strong connective coating. Dr. Vladimir Fortov, Russian Minister of Science, and Dr. Reinhard Hopfl, a high ranking German physicist, head Russian and German teams joining Rhombic Corporation in producing DCM particles in the U.S. or possibly Russia. The DCM plasmas can be produced as catalysts, as abrasive wear-resistant grinding materials of high strength, and as intermediate material for soldering or welding of various ceramic and other nonmetal items with metals such as solder for the junction of high temperature superconductors and electric current leads. A special application is a coating that leads to a very low cost conversion of long lived nuclear wastes from nuclear reactors into stable nuclides or the elimination of the radio active plutonium by transmutation into uranium. This potential of DCM plasmas to neutralize radio active wastes opens the door for Rhombic Corporation to enter the billion dollar waste site clean up business that plagues the world with toxins. All the known manufacturing methods for these DCM materials are either insufficient in the continuity of the coating, or the coating does not adhere adequately to the particles of the initial material, resulting in a degrading of the strength of the product. Rhombic's DCM acquisition assures that the active components have strong adhesive qualities and a long DCM lifetime.

США, возможно, ограничат посещение лабораторий, разрабатывающих ядерное оружие.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is ready to support limits on foreign scientific exchanges at U.S. weapons laboratories, but he warned Tuesday that a sweeping moratorium would hurt America's interests. Richardson, touring an exhibit of anti-terrorist gadgets developed by scientists at the labs, said the kinds of restrictions being discussed by some in Congress would scuttle U.S. attempts to help Russia safeguard its nuclear material. "If adopted it would literally mean the closure of our Russia lab-to-lab program," said Richardson. He was speaking of a House proposal to impose a broad, unrestricted moratorium on foreign visits to the three weapons labs. The Russia program has been a top Clinton administration priority because its aim is to help Russia keep its nuclear material and top scientists from going into the service of dangerous governments. Last year, more than 1,200 Russian and Chinese visitors were logged in at the New Mexico's Los Alamos and California's Lawrence Livermore weapons labs, Energy Department records show. The General Accounting Office, Congress' auditing agency, recently said visits to all the labs by scientists from "sensitive" countries soared from 500 to more than 1,800 in the 1990s. The exchange program has become a focus of attention in Congress as lawmakers attempt to grapple with reports of years of lax security at the weapons labs and of theft by China of nuclear warhead secrets. A voluminous congressional report on Chinese technology thefts is expected to be released within days.
Richardson said a Senate measure on the foreign visitor program, which cleared the Armed Services Committee this week, is one "that we can live with" and reflects "bipartisan support to fix the problem cooperatively." That legislation would halt lab-to-lab foreign visitors unless the heads of the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI and the energy secretary certify adequate counterintelligence safeguards. Administration officials said under those conditions essential programs would not be affected under the new security measures being put in place. The House proposal, offered by Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., bans visits from "sensitive" countries unless a waiver is given by concerned congressional committees. Ryun called it "a mechanism to ensure our vital national security secrets are protected." Such restrictions, Richardson said, would close down the Russia program and is an overreaction. "It's draconian. It hurts our national security," he said. Much of the anti-terrorist equipment Richardson viewed was developed at the weapons labs in conjunction with private industry and in some cases as part of the Russia lab-to-lab exchanges. One exhibit featured physical security measures aimed at preventing break-ins at nuclear facilities. Richardson was given a key to what was supposed to be a nuclear vault. He succeeded in 31 seconds to break in, but was caught by the alarm and a hidden camera. That project, as well as another from the Lawrence Livermore lab on detecting nuclear material in transit, were developed as part of the Russia exchange program, officials said. Winifred Parker, a nuclear chemist at Lawrence Livermore, said she visited Russia twice and worked with Russians who have visited the U.S. lab in California to work on the nuclear material detection technology. "If we can't visit the Russians and they can't come to us, work is almost impossible," she said. "We really need to be able to talk, to have scientists talking to other scientists." At yet another booth, Morton Lieberman of Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, showed off a high-tech artificial foot. He said the foot was the product of a cooperative effort between Tufts University and a weapons lab in Russia.

Эммиграция ученых из бывшего Советского Союза сильно изменила науку и промышленность Израиля, особенно в области вычислительной техники и информационных технологий.

RAMAT GAN -- Once known mostly for its oranges and its fabulous antiquities, Israel is now turning into a high-tech powerhouse. Much of the credit for this must go to a vast wave of Jewish scientists from the former Soviet Union who began pouring into Israel 10 years ago and have reshaped Israeli science and industry, particularly in the areas of computers and information technology. But while industry and academe have profited by skimming the cream off the influx of immigrants, most new arrivals endure a brutal competition for tenuous postdoclike positions and, once employed, earn much less than their Israeli counterparts; many fail to find jobs in their fields.

Новые правила работы в секретных лабораториях, введенные Департаментом энергетики США и направленные на предотвращение шпионажа, привели к ухудшению условий труда ученых из России, Китая и Индии.

The escalating political crossfire over alleged Chinese spying at U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories has produced its first scientific casualties. This week, officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said that new Department of Energy restrictions designed to prevent spying by foreign scientists have led to the departure of at least one highly regarded researcher, while several foreign-born scientists have turned down postdoctoral fellowships because of concerns about their working conditions. The new rules also have made it more difficult for scientists from "sensitive" nations, including China, India, and Russia, to obtain research funds, computing time, and visitation permits.

В Политехническом музее в Москве открывается выставка, посвященная 110-й годовщине со дня рождения Игоря Сикорского - первого летчика России. После революции Сикорский покинул родину и был вычеркнут из официальной советской истории. На выставке представлены фотографии, модели вертолетов, копия лицензии русского пилота. Наконец-то И.Сикорский получает признание как отец российского вертолетостроения.

STRATFORD, Conn. (AP) -- More than 80 years after aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky fled his native Russia and was erased from official Soviet history, he will finally be acknowledged in Moscow this week as the father of the helicopter industry.
Sikorsky died in 1972 at age 83. He never returned to Russia during his lifetime, fearing its communist rulers. But he will be featured in an exhibit at the Moscow Polytechnical Museum on Tuesday - the 110th anniversary of his birth in Kiev. The event will mark the first time information about Sikorsky's aeronautical achievements will be readily available to the average Russian. The exhibit will include photographs, large scale models, a copy of his original Russian pilot's license from 1911 and correspondence with his close friend, Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff.
"This is a chance for the Russian people to look at and review a piece of history that was forbidden to them until now," his son, Sergei, 74, of Surprise, Ariz., said this week. "It's a very nice step, possibly long overdue." In 1912, prior to the Russian revolution, Sikorsky was chief engineer for the government's aircraft factory in Petrograd. He flew on May 13, 1913, in "The Grand," the world's first four-engine airplane. At the time, he and his invention were famous throughout Russia and he was honored by Czar Nicholas II.
But when the communists overthrew the government in 1917, the man known as "Mr. Aviation" fled the country. "He was more or less on the hit list because of his friendship with the czar and the royal family," Sergei said. "His life was in very definite danger."
After spending time in France, Sikorsky arrived in New York on March 30, 1919. He took a job teaching math to other emigres. Four years later, he started the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corp. at a Long Island farm. In 1929, Charles Lindbergh inaugurated airmail service between the United States and the Panama Canal Zone in one of Sikorsky's aircraft.
Later that year the company, renamed Sikorsky Aviation Corp., moved to Stratford, Conn. Sikorsky later became a subsidiary of what is today United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX - news). The company first built "flying boats," aircraft capable of water landings that were used in the early days of trans-Atlantic flights.
But in 1931, Sikorsky patented a design for the helicopter. His invention, with a single large main rotor and a small tail rotor, flew for the first time on Sept. 14, 1939.
By the following summer, the experimental helicopter could stay airborne for 15 minutes. There were eventually 19 prototypes, some of which crashed before Sikorsky got the design right. But his helicopters would go on to become a staple of U.S. military operations, used in all five branches of the armed forces. In World War II, Sikorsky helicopters flew the first combat rescue and medical evacuation missions. Today, Sikorsky helicopters are used by military services and commercial operators in more than 40 countries. Over the course of his American career, Sikorsky was feted by presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. Artifacts from his career are on permanent display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Yet in Russia, for years his name was only spoken in hushed tones, and mostly among aeronautical engineers. "Officially, as far as the Soviet government was concerned, he did not exist," Sergei said. Sikorsky, buried in a Russian cemetery in Stratford, always wanted to return to his homeland, his son said. "If (the fall of communism) had happened 20 years earlier, I'm almost certain he would have been back, and I'm almost sure he would have been officially invited," Sergei said.

Представители национальных космических агенств, сотрудничающих в проекте "Spectrum X", на следующей неделе встретятся в Москве для обсуждения перспектив дальнейшей работы.

MUNICH -- Representatives of national space agencies involved in the Spectrum X collaboration, an ambitious and long-delayed X-ray astronomy mission, will meet in Moscow next week to discuss prospects for the project, now due for launch in 2001.
Space agencies have already built instruments for the mission, which was conceived by the former Soviet Academy of Sciences, for a mid-1990s launch. But the building of the main spacecraft, by Russia's satellite manufacturer Lavochkin Association, has never been completed. The problem is believed to be financial.
"Space agencies have been frustrated by unclear pictures of what is happening," says Paul Merdin of the British National Space Centre. Britain has paid ?13 million (US$21 million) towards the cost of JET-X (Joint European Telescope). But, like other Spectrum X instruments, JET-X has been sitting in storage for several years. Scientists hope the Moscow meeting will restore confidence that the new launch date of 2001 will be met. Further delays, they fear, may render Spectrum X's scientific capabilities outdated, given that three major X-ray astronomy missions are to be launched by Europe, the United States and Japan in the coming months.

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